A Reuters story this morning talks about the problem of magazines and newspapers inflating their circulation numbers. Falsified numbers are being discovered, people are being fired, and advertisers are demanding refunds.
(Circulation means the number of people reading the publication. This number is important, because it determines how much money the publication can charge advertisers.)
Does circulation inflation occur in the world of CAD publications? There are warning signs to watch for. Some publishers report the combined circulation of all publications -- rather than individual publications. A daily e-newsletter has been reporting the exactly same circulation figure for more than a year -- an unlikely situation, because subscribers numbers are in continual flux.
A better way is to guarantee the advertiser a minimum number of readers, and then report the actual number once the ad has run. upFront.eZine has always under-reported its circulation to prevent the inflation problem from occurring.
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